Some confusion here. Just got a BB 8700c and when I did the deal I was told that there were differences between the 44.95 plan and the 29.99 plan. After reading several posts here on the forum it sounded as though there were no differences and I called Cingular Customer service to change it. The agent made the change and when she did, I immediately lost my EDGE and went to GSM. She seem to think that this could be the difference. She changed me back to the more expensive service and the EDGE immediately reappeared.

So now, I am confused......

I am in the DFW area and any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

This is BIS service, there is no BES service required.

Also, if any one knows how do this I would also be much appreciated. I use Verizon FIOS service which is great. I do have the option to forward the emails, but if I use that option I lose the ability to have them on the server waiting for my main computer when I return. I actually have to reset the option. Anyone know of a fix around this.

i certainly hope its an easy fix, because if its up to cingular reps.. man.. it took me about 2 weeks to finally get it squared away. do a search on here for the blackberry data tech #.. that will help a great deal.

You shouldn't be paying the $44.99. The $29.99 Blackberry Plan is called the Personal Blackberry Plan, meaning if you are not going to use BES this is the plan you should be on. The personal plan does not allow you to use BES. It has all the same features which is unlimited data. The only real difference I've been reading is that some people have had only one browser which is the Cingular browser that shows up. Before, with the $44.99, there were two different browser icons showing up on the home screen. One with a world with the Cingular jack on it and another just a world. Obviously you should know which is the Cingular browser.

Changing between the different BB features should no way change your service. Tommorow, if the store is open, I'd go in and make sure everything is correct. Customer Service is closed tommorow.

Any Cingular-Blue (ATTW) customers get the lower rate yet? I went through 2 reps on the phone and they both said I had to migrate to Cingular-Orange (new contract) to receive the $29.99 plan.

My account has already been moved with regard to online account access (don't have to use the separate ATTW customer links). The only difference is that I have an ATTW sim, but they say their data plans are still on separate systems.

Didn't AT&T make a recent agreement to buy Cingular and ditch their name? Why would I have to migrate? It would seem redundant.

I got an 8700c from Cingular a few weeks ago and signed up the for the $29.99 ulimited Blackberry service.

The $44.99 is for access to BES with cingular and the Corporate e-mail push (through Exchange?) I think.

I use the desktop redirector on my work computer for the days I need to have that mail forwarded. I signed up for my own Exchange hosting service and have BES through them @ $9.99/month.

And as others have mentioned, EDGE should be available in either plan. The best thing about the $29.99 plan is that you get unlimited data for web browsing as well, and of course if you PIN message other BB users, then text messaging is essentially free as well.

When adding 1,000,000 text messages per month to my teenage daughter's plan, the Cingular store rep told me I was paying too much for my BB plan, and switched me from $44.99 to $29.99. I have BES with Link2Exchange, and specifically asked if the $29.99 plan worked with BES. He said yes. I did enterprise reactivation with L2E, and my email pushes from their server instantly just as it did before. So AFAIK, BES, hosted anyway, works with $29.99/mo. Or am I missing something?

I went from the 49.95 data plan with a treo 650 to the 29.95 blackberry (no need for BES) and didn't lose a thing in coverage or functionality. I can still vpn, email, browse etc.. I'd go with the cheaper route, and I gained EDGE support as well (huge benefit) so I can't see why you would lose EDGE going to the 29.95, try reconnecting as suggested.

When adding 1,000,000 text messages per month to my teenage daughter's plan, the Cingular store rep told me I was paying too much for my BB plan, and switched me from $44.99 to $29.99. I have BES with Link2Exchange, and specifically asked if the $29.99 plan worked with BES. He said yes. I did enterprise reactivation with L2E, and my email pushes from their server instantly just as it did before. So AFAIK, BES, hosted anyway, works with $29.99/mo. Or am I missing something?

Sounds like an ignorant rep (imagine that!) wait till the bill comes before you get too happy. It's my impression that very few large companies fail to fix errors that have a negative financial impact on them! The 29.99 plan was devised to compete in the personal/ non BES market.

I don't know if it's ignorance on their part. The $44.99 option (the way I read the description) was labeled as "corporate e-mail unlimited". I assumed it was for something by way of security protocols that corporate BES or Exchange servers had in place. I would assume that you wouldn't need to subscribe to BES with your mail host if you already had the $44.99 plan (though I may be wrong of course) since BES is hosted from Cingular.

With a hosted mail service, you're essentially paying them the additional $10+/month for BES support rather than using Cingular. So it seems like "net/net", you pay $45 with Cingular or $30 + $10 + ($whatever the mailbox costs) with a hosted service...?

I would assume that you wouldn't need to subscribe to BES with your mail host if you already had the $44.99 plan (though I may be wrong of course) since BES is hosted from Cingular.

Yes, you're wrong on that. Cingular does not host BES, BES servers are hosted by your company, or alternatively by a third-party hosting service such as you subscribe to. Cingular (and the other carriers) host the BIS servers, but NOT BES. The $29.99 plan from Cingular is not supposed to allow communication with *any* BES server, so its likely that the rep didn't really change your service, and made a mistake. Wait for your next bill, or check online, but you should not have connectivity to BES with the $29.99 plan.

I do not appear to have any connectivity issues with my BES on L2E. Email gets pushed, changes in contacts, notes, etc. get sync'd OTA. Any other tests I should try?

As for data charges, I will check my next bill, though checking this month online, so far I don't think I am being billed. I know for Internet, etc. I am not going through wap.cingular. I never entered that APN, or the user name or password. So presumably I am going through my L2E BES. Or am I missing something?

I do not appear to have any connectivity issues with my BES on L2E. Email gets pushed, changes in contacts, notes, etc. get sync'd OTA. Any other tests I should try?

As for data charges, I will check my next bill, though checking this month online, so far I don't think I am being billed. I know for Internet, etc. I am not going through wap.cingular. I never entered that APN, or the user name or password. So presumably I am going through my L2E BES. Or am I missing something?

Same here... regardless whatever the intention of the pricing plans are, I'm on the $29.99 unlimited Blackberry Internet plan with Cingular... and the BES/Exchange hosting works fine--mail, contacts, etc. all sync real time.

If they cut me of from the $29.99, I guess I'll have to rely on forwarding to my blackberry.net acct for "real time" messaging...and calendars and contacts...the old PDA/USB sync I guess.

so accessing the wap.cingular apn while on the 29.99 plan will lead to data charges? I know that the blackberry uses the blackberry.net apn, however I have no ppu features on my account and recently used medianet in my v3.....

I'm having a problem. I stopped in the store to make sure I was on the $29.99 plan, but I wasn't. So they switched me to that. Now my Internet Browswer doesn't work. I called in and he said I needed the $44.99 plan for that. I know that's bullsh*t. Cingular is starting to piss me off. I've had a the 8700 since it came out and there are ALWAYS problems getting them to bill me properly while giving me the Internet browser.

Am I right? $29.99 plan should give me the ability to use the Internet Browser and not just the Cingular Browser, right?

According to a 01Jun06 post by hf1khal in Thread: Cingular rolls out BIS 2.0 & Unl Price drop!, the Cingular Browser replaces the Internet Browser and it will use the Cingular APN. However, that comment was made weeks before the rollout, so I don't know if it still holds true.

Does the Cingular Browser work for you? What's different about it? I'm still on the $49 plan (ATTW), but I've migrated to BIS 2.0/2.1).